Sony

The Android-powered Xperia phone and tablet range is one of the modern Sony's main areas of focus

Japanese corporate giant Sony makes everything from cameras to TVs to games consoles to smartphones — not to mention its considerable music and movie portfolio. In the Android world, though, Sony is best known in the context of its Xperia phones and tablets, and mobile is one of the three pillars of the company's "One Sony" initiative, announced by CEO Kazuo Hirai in 2012. (The other two being gaming and digital imaging.) Sony Mobile, as it's now called, was formed out of Sony's buyout of the old Sony Ericsson, which was a joint venture between Sony and the Swedish company.

Sony's smartphone lineup is led by its Xperia Z series, with which it pursues an unusually aggressive upgrade cycle, shipping a new Z series model every six months. In recent years Sony has moved towards a singular design language across much of its mobile devices, dubbed "Omnibalance." Omnibalance phones are typically angular, squared-off slabs with curved or metallic edges, and often feature glass-backed chassis. While recent entrants like the Xperia Z2 have earned Sony praise for its build quality, they've also been criticized for being boxy and uncomfortable to hold.

An early pioneer in waterproof smartphone designs, many of Sony's high-end devices also boast water and dust resistance, which it has achieved by sealing most of its port sand connectors behind waterproof plastic doors. Recently Sony has started to extend water resistance to its mid-range offerings as well.

As a company with a strong history in digital imaging, Sony includes homegrown Exmor sensors and G lenses in its smartphone cameras, the most common being its 20.7-megapixel Exmor RS unit. This is packaged together with software that emulates the features of some standalone Sony cameras, such as Superior Auto for automatic scene detection, and Sweep Panorama for panoramic images. Sony also attempted to leverage its valuable PlayStation brand in the world of mobile gaming, however PlayStation Mobile was discontinued in mid-2014.

Sony is one of the major smartphone players in Europe and parts of Asia, however it's yet to crack the U.S. market in any meaningful way. It sells some devices unlocked through its U.S.-based online store, but so far its carrier-approved handsets have been few and far between. And while its mobile products continue to receive generally positive reviews, the company itself faces a tumultuous financial future.

All Sony

If the recently leaked front panels for the Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact are accurate, then Sony may be continuing the design trend that is found on its recent line of smartphones and tablets. The leak shows what is allegedly being reported as the front panels for the Xperia Z3 and the...

Tinkerers and ROM creators will be interested to hear that Sony has moved the kernel source code from their Developer World portal to GitHub. Pop by the repositories and you'll find kernels for many of the major Xperia devices, like the Z Ultra and Z1, with more to come.
Good on Sony for...

Amazon is having a pretty massive sale on microSD memory cards from Sony. We're talking $32.99 for the 64 GB card, which normally goes for $114.99. (That's 71% off, for those who don't feel like doing the math.) Unfortunately, Sony's line doesn't extend up to the 128 GB denomination we've seen...

U.S. customers looking for Sony's entry-level Xperia M2 are now in luck as the handset is now available for pre-order from Sony's web and physical stores. The handset is expected to ship Wednesday, June 25, with a price of $289.99 and can be pre-ordered in either black, purple, or white.
The...

Sony has just released an app exclusive to Xperia devices called Live on YouTube, which does exactly what you expect it would. Users can boot up the app and start a live video stream from their Sony smartphone's camera, keep tabs on how many viewers and likes they have, as well as share links to...

A day ahead of the kickoff ceremony of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Sony has unveiled an Xperia theme for the event. While the theme was leaked in its entirety last month, it is now officially available for download in the Play Store.
The theme features a green on yellow color scheme and has a...

Sony has launched the Xperia Z2a in Taiwan. This device is very similar to the Xperia Z2 that recently launched globally, but in a slightly different plastic-backed chassis, running on Taiwanese 4G LTE networks.
As well as LTE, the device sports a 5-inch 1080p display, 3,000mAh fixed battery,...

Though the international variant of the Sony Xperia Z was recently upgraded to Android 4.4.2 KitKat, those in the U.S. aren't as fortunate as T-Mobile has only finally gotten around to updating the waterproof handset to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. T-Mobile customers should begin getting their update...

What you see above is a render of a Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet with surprisingly restrained branding from Verizon. The LTE variant of the 10-inch tablet with its wide bezels is apparently coming to Big Red later this year, according to evleaks.
As best as we can tell, all we're looking at here is a...

A few months after launching the Smartwatch 2, Sony has now launched its latest wearable product, the SmartBand SWR10 in the U.S. and Canada The company revealed it can now be bought on the official Sony Store website as well as its U.S. retail store locations for $99.99. Rogers is offering a...

Sony is the latest handset maker to field a mid-range product with a large, five-plus-inch screen size. Announced this morning, the Sony Xperia T3 packs a 5.3-inch display, and at 7mm thick Sony says it's the world's slimmest handset at this screen size. Like the Xperia Z family, the T3's...

We compare the four big Android phones of 2014 — including the just-announced LG G3
The LG G3 is official, and we've got our hands on LG's new, 5.5-inch, quad-HD-screened flagship smartphone. We've also brought along the three leading high-end Android phones — the metal-clad HTC One M8, Samsung'...

The Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet is headed to Verizon, or so says serial tipster @evleaks. We've already had word directly from Sony that its latest tablet would be headed stateside – costing from $500 outright. There isn't any other information provided like when, or how much, but presumably it'll be...

Sony has announced that they've begun rolling out Android 4.4 KitKat to a wide range of their devices. The Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, Xperia Tablet Z are all enjoying the update, while Xperia T2 Ultra, Xperia E1, and Xperia M2 are next in line for KitKat updates in July.
The update tweaks...

As we approach the midway point of 2014, the march of smartphone progress is as unrelenting as it's ever been. The latest devices from the likes of Samsung and HTC have pushed specs, screen sizes and price tags to new heights, to the point where the year-old phones they've replaced seem quaint...

As we approach the midway point of 2014, the march of smartphone progress is as unrelenting as it's ever been. The latest devices from the likes of Samsung and HTC have pushed specs, screen sizes and price tags to new heights, to the point where the year-old phones they've replaced seem quaint and...

After stopping by Canada, the mid-range Sony Xperia M2 is hitting UK carriers. The phone launches on EE today, with prices starting at £19.99 on a 24-month, £18.99 per month 4G plan with 500MB of data. The EE Xperia M2 is available from today online, in-store and via telesales.
The Sony Xperia...

As Japanese tech giant Sony restructures its businesses, there are signs of more growing pains to come. The company revealed that it expects losses of ¥50 billion ($489 million) in the financial year ending March 2015, whereas analysts had predicted a net profit of ¥59 billion. The previous year...

Confirming earlier leaks, Sony has today unveiled the Xperia A2 for NTT Docomo in Japan, joining Sony's current flagship, the Xperia Z2 on the Japanese network. As rumored, the Xperia A2 is almost identical to the Xperia Z1 Compact, a phone which arrived in Japan last year as the Xperia Z1 f...

Only a couple of weeks after Sony accidentally outed a Verizon version of the Xperia Z2 on its official Facebook and Google+ pages, a Z2 with Verizon branding has once again slipped out into the wild. This time the company's Korean microsite for the phone is the source of the leak, which shows a...

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